Transcript Greening Organisations Path to a Sustainable Society or

Business, Education and
Sustainability
- a workshop
CEMUS Sept 2012
Pernilla Andersson – Phd candidate Södertörn University College
[email protected]
Todays schedule
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10.15-10.30 Presentation, sustainability and models.
10.30-11.30 Movie – The corporation
11.30-12 Group work
12-13 Lunch
13.15-13.45 Model of Analysis – summary
13.45-15 Forum Play and if there is time …
developing a critical perspective on economyoriented texts.
Environment and Economics
-contradictory concepts?
• Economics = the wise use of limited resources
• Depends on the perspective, individual or
global and time (today, tomorrow, in ten
years... 1000 years…)
The environmental dimension is about the ecosystem
services and possibility to recover, which are essential
for a longterm social and economic development.
Economic growth is one condition
for development. At the same time
no country can achieve a sustainable
economic growth if the environment
is deteriorating, if the wealth is nog
distributed fairly and if there is no
growth in the human capital (health,
education..).
Social development is therefore both a result of and a
condition for economic growth. The social dimension of
sustainable development enhances that resources, influence
and power is distributed in a fair way, that all people get
access to social service and for the individual to feel safe and
be able to participate in the society.
ESD – the strive for a holistic perspective
using a cross-curricular approach
The environmental dimension provides
resources as well as a frame/the carrying
capacity. (natural sciences)
The social dimension is a goal. (social
sciences, language…)
The economic dimension is the means to
achieve the goal within the frame of what is
environ-mentally and socially sustainable.
(economics, business economics, civics)
What is considered ”sustainable” must not
be seen as a constant truth but be subject
for debate and ethical discussions.
The frame – the carrying capacity of the environment
Model of Analysis
2. CAUSES
1. THE ISSUE
4. ACTIONS
3. CONSEQUENCES
1. Describe the behavior of
corporations. Describe the different
roles of women and men as well as
the roles of people with different
ethnical background.
2. What are the consequences?
3. What makes corporations behave the
way they are portrayed in the
documentary? (causes)
4. The behaviour of the director of one
of the corporations is changed, what
changed his behavior? (solutions)
Forum Play
1. Prepare a short play (approx. 5 min) portraying ”an
unsustainable way of doing business”. You need to
have at least 1 subcontractor, 1 businessperson from
a rich country, 1 consumer.
2. The short play is played once with the rest of us as
spectators.
3. The play is restarted but this time whenever one of
us in the audience feels someone in the play might
have tried a different strategy, she/he can stop the
action, take the actors place and try her/his idea. Or,
say stop and give instructions to the actor.
4. The goal is to change the unsustainable situation to a
more sustainable situation.
Ray Anderson - an
entrepreneur being critical to
the norms of running a
business.
“Costs are down, not up, dispelling a myth and exposing the false choice between
the economy and the environment, products are the best they have ever been,
because sustainable design has provided an unexpected wellspring of innovation,
people are galvanized around a shared higher purpose, better people are applying,
the best people are staying and working with a purpose, the goodwill in the
marketplace generated by our focus on sustainability far exceeds that which any
amount of advertising or marketing expenditure could have generated – this
company believes it has found a better way to a bigger and more legitimate profit –
a better business model.”
”It is not only a challenging business to
change the world but also a business
can change the world”
Andersson, Öhman & Östman (2011) ”A business to change the world”. Utbildning
och Demokrati. Vol, p.
Lunch 12-13.15!
See you in Småland Geocentrum…
Where do these experiences
take us researchwise?
Theory
Knowledge of reality
constructs reality
(because it affects our imagination)
Method
• Analyzing all exerpts where environmental och social issues
occur in relation to corporations using concepts like norms,
meanings, inclusion and exclusion.
Norms
• Rules that help us in social interaction. For
instance: greeting each other, how to behave
eating together.
• Most norms we are not aware of until
someone breaks them.
• Norms are necessary AND can be both good
and bad AND change over time, often so slow
that we don´t notice.
What is taken for granted? What norm is
enforced/created here? Who/what is benefiting
and who/what is not benefiting from this norm?
”Even if corporations in the western world demand that childlabour should not be used it is no guarantee that will be the case.
It is hard to control how production is done in practice. Big
corporations as IKEA and H&M has suffered/experienced this
problem.”
If the norm/the norms are not
contributing to SD, how can we make a
contribution to
change them or rather offer a wide
range of norms?
For instance …
Let´s take childrens rights seriously … and
edit …
From:
”Even if corporations in the western would demand
that child-labour should not be used it is no
guarantee that will be the case. It is hard to control
how production is done in practice. Big corporations
as IKEA and H&M has suffered from/experienced this
problem.”
(From a textbook in International Economics for Upper Secondary Schools
in Sweden 2007)
To:
“There has been efforts from western corporations to
use codes of conduct to improve the situation for
children and other employees. Lack of control over the
production process, which is taking place among a big
number of sub-contractors, is though a problem. In
order to improve the situation for children, full control
of the production-process is needed. One example is
Dem Collective that decided to run their own factory
instead.”
Dem Collective
Challenges the norm to look upon profit …
Webbsites on
business and sustainability:
• www.amnestybusinessgroup.se
• www.wbcsd.org – search for Corporate
Ecosystem Services Assessment
• http://www.lohas.com/